


Big Things and Little Things

by Isaya



Series: Advent Calender 2020 [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Esgaroth burning, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27885169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isaya/pseuds/Isaya
Summary: Smaug's burning of Esgaroth from the view of a child.
Series: Advent Calender 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036623
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Big Things and Little Things

**Author's Note:**

> Day 4. Yeah, I already failed at posting everyday as there was no day 3, but yesterday was an emotional day and I was too angry to write anything. I'm gonna continue this project anyway. (Let's hope that resolution lasts.)
> 
> TW: drowning

Living in Esgaroth meant living in squalor. It meant living in constant fear of fire, destruction and death. At least, in theory. Lindy didn't like to think about 'the big things' as her uncle had called it. She cared more about the little things like eating dinner with her family, scampering up and down the walkways when she did not have to help out at home, and Stone-tone, her pet river stone. B's family a few houses down had 'mangy dog', but she liked her own pet better. At least, Stone-tone was with her at all times and didn't keep running off for a couple days before returning. And it was _really_ pretty and not caked in mud – well, most of the time that is.

The day Smaug attacked had started like any other day. The excitement from the visiting dwarves had mostly gone away by then and besides, that was a 'big thing'. She was more interested in catching a little fishie in the lake. She'd been told she would not be able to catch one and that challenge couldn't be ignored. (Even if she'd been told she would not be able to because _there were no fish in the lake around Esgaroth_ . All that mattered was that she was told she could not do something – not because it was forbidden but because she would be unable to. Forbidden things were mostly forbidden for a reason and she knew her Da well enough to tell the difference between forbidden and _forbidden_.)

Her brother would later say he wasn't sure what woke him, the fire or the screams. She knew though. It was the water. It was their house crumbling beneath them and her bed falling through the floor into the water. She was woken by the icy cold in the water, an icy cold that quickly turned boiling hot. (Not actually _boiling_ hot because then she'd be dead.)

By the time she'd rid herself of her bedding, her lungs were burning and she was choking on the lake. She wasn't sure how she held out long enough for falling debris hitting the plank beneath her and catapulting her out of the water. Someone grabbed her and threw her into a small barge, the impact making her first gasp and then puke up what water she swallowed. Only moments later the barge was capsized and she was dunked into the lake again. She struggled to stay afloat. The whole burning town was a blur. It could have been seconds or hours, she could barely tell up and down (up was air and fire, down was water) let alone right or left and which direction to go to safety.

The trek to the ruins of Dale was both 'a big thing' _and_ 'a little thing'. She was being carried by her brother and he was both familiar and _warm_ but Da wasn't with them. Dale itself was also both a big and a little thing. She did not know they could overlap so much.

And then she noticed that Stone-tone was _gone_.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue what this is, but a couple friends of mine were watching the Hobbit while on vc, idk
> 
> no editing, no beta etc.


End file.
